J.C. MEDHI, REGISTRAR, ASSAM HIGH COURT Vs. FRANK MORAES, RESIDENT EDITOR, THE TIMES OF INDIA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A rule nisi was issued by this Court on 7 -11 -1953 calling upon the opposite parties to show cause why they should not be committed or otherwise dealt with for contempt of this Court for publishing a news item in an issue, dated 21 -8 -53, of the 'daily' called 'The Times of India'. The. opposite parties 1 and 2 are the Editor and the Printer and Publisher of that paper respectively, and opposite party 3 is the correspondent thereof from Jorhat in the State of Assam. This paper appears to have a large circulation, and is published simultaneously every day in the English language in Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta. The news item in question bears the heading "Failed candidate to get his degree" and is dated, Jorhat, August 20. The publication purports to be a report of a judgment, dated 18 -8 -53, delivered by this Court in Civil Rule No. 3 of 1953. As the report appeared to be a garbled and distorted version of the judgment leading to the impression that it was an arbitrary writ of mandamus issued against the Gauhati University, the attention of the Court was directed to the publication by an affidavit filed by Mr. J. C. Medhi, the then Registrar of the Court.

(2.) THE relevant facts were that one Hemendra Chandra Das who was a student of the Jorhat Agricultural College, appeared in the Bachelor of Science Examination in Agriculture of the Gauhati University for the year 1952 as an examinee. According to the mark -sheet furnished by the University, he secured 1172 marks out of an aggregate of 2400 marks in the Examination, that is to say, he secured in the aggregate 48.8 per cent. marks. He also got more than 30 per cent. marks in 'each 'subject';' though in one of the papers of "Genetics etc." in the subject of 'Agricultural Botany which consisted of two theoretical papers -(i) Plant Physiology and (ii) Genetics etc., -he secured only 28 marks out of 100, but counting the marks in the above two papers of Agricultural Botany, he secured more than 30 per cent. marks even in that subject.

(3.) IT is in the background of these facts that the offending publication has to be considered. The caption of the article "Failed candidate to get his degree", which is in very bold capital letters, is, by itself, somewhat intriguing and sensational. It may ill accord with the respectability of a responsible journal to cater for sensation -mongering items of news, but the temptation is venial and no serious exception could be taken to it unless what follows thereafter is actually found to be objectionable and constitutes contempt. After some preliminary observation the article says :